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Thursday, 27 December 2012

Review - "The Snowmen"

To use Madama Vastra’s “game” and sum up “The Snowmen” in
one word is actually relatively simple.
Yowzah will do it quite happily and I’m very glad of that because this
episode is extremely important. “The
Snowmen” is not only the episode that takes us into the anniversary year but it
also introduces us formally to new companion, Clara, played with great aplomb
by Jenna-Louise Coleman. We were also
promised new titles, new music and a new Tardis interior - as such, it HAD to
be good…and indeed it was.

The new titles and music were fantastic. The title sequence was just so much sharper
than it has been and saw a very welcome return of the “face” – fleeting though
it was. The vortex was still there but it was more of
a Pertwee/Baker type than the “cloudy” vortex of recent years. Also, entering the episode via the opening
doors of the Tardis was a masterstroke. The
new theme tune was a most definite nod to Classic Who – it started similarly to
last season’s theme then segued beautifully into a more retro version. Definitely, less jazz and more scare.

The new Tardis interior is, quite frankly, gorgeous and, as
usual, the promo pics released beforehand did not do it justice. It’s so much more mechanical – the console is
much more logical than the hodgepodge of junk that the previous one consisted
of. The Gallifreyan language is a very nice touch
and, again, the sheer simplicity harks back to the Classic era. This episode featured, I believe, the first continuous
shot following the characters as they enter the Tardis from outside and right
into the new Control Room.

The plot itself was …well, I would hardly call it “insignificant”
and it was miles ahead of last year’s
but this episode was really geared up to introduce Clara and set up the
next 8 episodes (or perhaps more). A
nice, simple plot then – with psychic snow, killer snowmen, an ice governess
and a cold villain all linking together with a real nod to the past: The Great
Intelligence. Classic fans will know the
Great Intelligence well and I’m sure little touches of significance to the
Classic brigade would have gone over the heads of casual viewers but it wasn’t
really necessary to have decades worth of Who knowledge floating around your
brain in order to watch and enjoy this.
Personally, I loved the little nods such as the London Underground tin
and mention of the underground as a “weakpoint” in 1967 thus, in true “timey-wimey”
fashion, the Eleventh Doctor in 1892 plants the idea for the Great Intelligence
to use the London Underground in the Second Doctor story, “The Web of Fear”.

We didn’t just get nods to Classic Who though – we had
returning characters from New Who in the form of Madame Vastra, Jenny and
Strax. I love these three – especially Strax
who turned out to be a perfect comedy foil for the Doctor. Vastra and Jenny as detectives with Strax as
their butler, living quite happily in Victorian England whilst keeping a wary
eye on our sulky, grumpy and depressed Doctor shouldn’t really have worked –
but rather wonderfully, it did. The other characters in the episode such as
Captain Latimer, didn’t really have a lot to do and I did feel that maybe
Doctor Simeon could have been used a bit more.

The main focus of the episode was, quite rightly, the Doctor
and Clara. As promised, we had a very
different Eleventh Doctor than we’d previously seen. Still in mourning really and living in the
Tardis…which was on a cloud…reached only by an “invisible” spiral staircase, he
walked through Victorian London and refused to get involved or help
anyone. “The universe doesn’t care”. We don’t know how much time has passed since
he lost the Ponds but the impression was given that it was considerable. Yet, it still hurt – look at how that one
word, “Pond”, affected him. He needed
someone to snap him out of it – and it took bouncy and extremely clever Clara
to get through to him…but once she did, the Doctor embraced the universal
problems once again and set out to foil the Great Intelligence. We saw glimpses of our fun Doctor again –
dressing up as Sherlock Holmes to get answers from Doctor Simeon and the Great
Intelligence Institute was one of the best Christmas scenes ever – and I can’t
have been alone in laughing like a drain at the Doctor’s “takes one to snow one”
pun.

As for Clara, I will hold my hands up right away and state
that I love her character. She’s fun,
excited by it all, clever – and a mystery.
And like the Doctor, I rather love a mystery. He was completely taken with her – her use of
the word “Pond”, her reactions to the Tardis, her intelligence – all caused him
to give her a Tardis key extremely quickly.
So wrapped up were we in this
delightful new relationship that Clara falling to her death was a complete
shock. Her final moments were a bit like
hammer blows – following on from earlier soufflé references we suddenly heard
her say “run, you clever boy…and remember”.
Oh, Moffat … you utter genius. The
Moff lies – just like the Doctor. We
knew that and yet, I suspect, most of us were taken in by him saying that Clara
and Oswin were two different characters.
The gravestone reveal of “Clara
Oswin Oswald” made the Doctor realise that something strange was going on – two
people, the same girl, meeting him twice and dying twice. This could have sent the Doctor spiralling
back into his previous sulky and depressed state but Clara was “impossible”,
she was a mystery – and the sheer joy on the Doctor’s face when he said “to find
her, to find Clara” was a delight.

Visually, this episode was stunning. The spiral staircase leading up to the Tardis
sitting on a cloud was breathtaking and, once again, we saw that when it comes
to Period Drama you really cannot beat the BBC.
The Snowmen, the globe - all very
effective and my only real complaint was that, presumably due to the early time
slot, you didn’t actually get to SEE the Snowmen “devour” anyone. You heard it – and whilst sometimes that’s
enough – in this case, I felt we needed a bit more.

The guest cast were top notch but a special nod has to go to
both Richard E Grant and Sir Ian McKellen.
Richard E Grant may have been a tad underused but he has an extremely
effective way of chilling the screen merely by an expression. His “chill stare” was impressive and very
threatening – so much so that I probably would have handed over the Ice
Governess with nary a quibble. Of
course, we didn’t see Sir Ian McKellen but he has a fabulously rich and
melodious voice – perfect for the Great Intelligence and it was great to
finally get him in Who.

The two main stars, of course, were fabulous. Matt Smith excelled once again with a
different take on Eleven, proving yet again that nothing is out of his
range. He really is so at home and
comfortable with the role that you do wonder, especially when watching
interviews, just where the Doctor ends and Matt Smith begins. Jenna-Louise Coleman showed us in “Asylum of
the Daleks” that we had no cause to worry and she confirmed it in “The Snowmen”. Certainly, she’s a cracking actress and Clara
is shaping up to be a very intriguing companion.

All in all, “The Snowmen” both was and wasn’t a typical
Christmas story – it had Christmas elements such as the snow but, unlike
previous Christmas episodes, it’s the start of a mystery that will continue
next year. Mysteries that are centred
around Clara – not just who she is (and theories about that range from a
character split through time like Scaroth in “City of Death” to her being a
manifestation of the Key to Time) but also points like how she knew to use the
word “pond” and whether the birthdate on her gravestone of 23 November is a nod
to the anniversary and when the show actually started or whether it’s far more
significant. Will the mystery of Clara be solved in the
anniversary episode? As a good man once
said, “time will tell. It always does”.

Episode Rating: 10/10 - a Christmas special with an ongoing mystery. What could be better?